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Australian Boomers score impressive away win over France

Roy Ward

Star turn: Matthew Dellavedova, pictured here training in Canberra last month, was a standout for the Boomers in their tight win over France. Photo: Rohan Thomson

It was only a pre-tournament game but Australia scored its most impressive win of its European tour beating France 76-74 in Nice on Monday morning.

With the French sitting one place above the Boomers in the FIBA men’s world rankings and NBA stars Nicolas Batum (24 points) and Boris Diaw (14 points) suiting up, the visitors received their hardest test to date and passed it with flying colours.

The win was the Boomers’ third-straight victory in three days after beating Ukraine and Philippines with the Australians now taking a week to train and recover before facing France again on August 25.

The French controlled the match for much of the first three quarters with Batum finding multiple avenues to score as his side led at the final change.

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But in the final term Boomers coach Andrej Lemanis put the ball in the hands of his own leading players in point guard Matthew Dellavedova (10 points, five assists), forward Joe Ingles (three points, nine rebounds and seven assists) and centre Aron Baynes (21 points on 7-11 shooting and nine rebounds) with the trio leading their team to victory.

The Boomers put Dellavedova and Baynes into screen and roll combinations which allowed lanes to open up for both players with the Boomers regaining the lead in the final term after Dellavedova threw up a perfect lob pass for Baynes to dunk home.

Two free throws from Baynes looked to have given Australia a safe five-point lead with 27 seconds remaining but Batum connected on a three-pointer then, after two free-throws from Ingles, was fouled on a desperation three-point shot with 2.8 seconds left.

Trailing by four, Batum made the first two shots and deliberately missed the third shot in the hope his side would grab the rebound, they did but power forward Joffrey Lauvergne (13 points) fell out of bounds attempting a shot.

Baynes took a much-needed break in the weeks after playing in San Antonio Spurs’ NBA championship win and has worked hard to regain his match fitness in the past few weeks with his form in the past three days a key factor in the Boomers’ three wins.

Most importantly the Boomers found baskets from multiple players on the bench with Chris Goulding (nine points) and Brad Newley (nine points) spreading the court while Ryan Broekhoff was again dangerous with seven points in just nine minutes on court.

Both teams were missing key players with the French team without NBA players Tony Parker (rest), Joakim Noah (rest) and Nando De Colo (broken hand) while the Boomers don't have Patty Mills (shoulder surgery) and Andrew Bogut (rest).

The Boomers will play in the FIBA world cup in Spain starting against Slovenia on August 30 with ABC 2 showing all the Boomers and Team USA games plus all matches from the quarter-final stage onwards.